Shipyard workers talked out of strike by advocacy group

Around 120 foreign shipyard workers came close to staging an illegal strike last month over unpaid wages. But they were talked out of it by the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), a foreign workers advocacy group backed by the labour movement.

The MWC kept this under wraps until the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) confirmed the case with The Straits Times yesterday.

The workers - 100 from Bangladesh and 20 from India - were hired by Akash Engineering and Technology, a sub-contractor for ship building and repair.

Unhappy that their salaries for up to 31/2 months had not been paid, some workers went to the MWC on Jan 15, saying that they would not be turning up for work the next day unless they got their money.